My 5 Favorite Creative Digital Apps and Programs

While I love to create art with paints, paper, scissors, and glue, I also do love finding higher tech ways to spur my creativity.​ I use these apps and programs in a variety of ways... Sometimes I take my "hand-created" art, scan it into the computer and then play with it digitally. Other times, I create art or graphics completely digitally and still other times I use techy tools to inspire my non-techy art.

Here are my 5 favorite creativity digital apps and programs.

1) Adobe Creative Suite:  Adobe is the workhorse for creatives - with good reasons! 
My first introduction to an Adobe product was in the late '90's when, as an advisor to a college newspaper, I helped students layout the paper in Adobe PageMaker. Once I got past the initial learning curve, I LOVED the program and transitioned seamlessly into Adobe InDesign. Currently, I use InDesign a tons! Through InDesign, I create images for my website and social media, do the layout and design work for prints, cards, and other products and create logos, business cards, plus so much more. 
Adobe Photoshop is another program in the Creative Suite that I use all the time. Specifically, I use Photoshop to edit color and manipulate images.
Lastly, I have dabbled with Adobe Illustrator and have found it to be a powerful tool - and a bit overwhelming. Becoming proficient in Illustrator is on my bucket list and I look forward to learning it.

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2) Tangle Patterns App: I love this app! Often, when I grab my sketchbook, I click on my Tangle Patterns App to get inspiration. This app has a ton of different tangle patterns with step by step instructions. I find that drawing the repeating patterns is relaxing and fun. Plus, I often use snippets of the "tangled" sketchbook pages  in my collage artwork.

3) Canva: I was recently introduced to Canva (thank you Ali!) and now I use it all the time! Through Canva, I create professionally looking designs for facebook and instagram posts, email headers, and more! They have tons of drop and drag images and photos that are fun and unique. Plus, there are a plethora of fonts to choose from! Canva makes it is easy to create a graphic that fits my style and get the look that I want.

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4) Procreate: Two Christmases ago, my husband gifted me an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. I tried out a bunch of apps, but when I found Procreate, I was blown away! This creative app, allows me to sketch, paint, draw and create on my tablet. It is so fun to play with! In procreate I have created texture designs for papers that I use for my collage artwork, doodled and sketched fun little images, designed logos, and even created time-lapsed videos of my creation process. And, I have only touched the surface of its capabilities. Except for its unfortunate name, Procreate is amazing!

5) Animoto: This is my go-to place to create video and slideshows. It is so easy to use - I have created professional looking videos by simply drop and dragging images and video clips. Animoto has music library and a variety of templates allowing me to get a the exact look and feel that I want.

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What are your favorite creative app or program that you use?

Make it a HAPPY day!